The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-06-23
an INDEPENDENT" MAN
-.AS'pd Existence In Boarding Houses
as . Means of Breaking Down the Real
Felicities of Life.

-.AS'Sd Existence in Boarding Houses
as Means of breaking Down the Real
Felicities of Life.
Nothing is more usual in New York
than for the man just married TO take
his young wife to no other home than a
clearinghouse. He does it with the
most laudable intention in the world,
and with the fixed determination to go to
housekeeping Just as soon as his inn
proved prospects will justify him to in
dulge in an increase of expenditure. At
present it Is 80 nice to sit down to the table
without any harassing fear of butchers
bills. no wrangle with unframed servants,
no fear of a mother in-law's superior wis
dom in household affairs putting your YER
dant experience TO the blush. 1t is so
pleasant to go of just when you feel like
it, on little flying trips to the country, or
q visit to some friend, without single
doubt or care behind. You can calculate
just to a nicely what your expenses amount
to, and consequently, indulge in many and
unjustifable little extravagances which
had been 9 great deal better bestowed in
q more useful cause. And, so, at the end
Of the year, though intensely weary Of it
all, you have 'drifted into this irresponsl-
BILE, py-go-lucky kind of existence, with
out any more definite course Of action than
when you first started.
Your wife, deprived Of all those charm
ing little duties which constitute the CHIEF
pleasure Of a married woman's life-those
nice little plans for identifying and embel-
fishing her home, in which her faculties
for the comfort of her surroundings find
full soope-has either grown inert and list
less or she has found other interests with
which to occupy herself. At the BEST it is
q vague, purposeless, dragging along OF
one day to another, in which routine has
no part The most important task Of
her life is how to kill time most effectually,
or to dispose of the day in the least tire
some manner. Her proper vocation is
m ssing; she knows no other duty than
that of self indulgence, till, finally, when
the time arrives for you to give her
home, she has lost all inclination for it,
an prefers to live on as she has begun.
Perhaps, after this, the cause for so
many divorces is not far to seek. There is
no country in the world where people have
so little veneration for their household
gods, as in America. The most luxurious
und elegantly appointed homes are broken
up-generally for the most trivial reason
in tho world with the same facility al
one would fold up tent, without the least
com injunction in parting with the thousand
and one familiar objects, endeared by long
usage and association. Thus the ruling
power receives fresh impetus from year
to year, and there is no fear Of a decay OF
its supremacy so long as people will not
recognize that the chief welfare of a
nation depends upon home influence and
association - to the wife the home;
to the husband the task of pro-
vidirg for it. If the former shirks
her part of the marriage contract,
it is surely excusable in the
husband 10 shrk his respoD sibilities. The
wholesome influence Of numerous obliga-
tions, the necessary sense Of weighty re-
sponsibilities, the beneticent restraint Of
home ties and dunes, have no part in his
life. The edge is taken of his ambition,
because the chief incentive thereto is
missing. He is a regular nomad, with a
nomad's idea Of life. Its obligations and
duties press but lightly on him, and he can
pitch his tent wherever no pleases. His
iaEdlady is the only person he fears, be.
cause on her depends his material comfort
That is why he alternately caioles and
tatters her, meekly bows his head 1nder
her coarse despotism, abjectly accedes
| TO her extortionate demand in "raising
| him." submits to the most humiliating
| impertinence from the servants, and, in
short, lives perpetual life on sufference,
while vsinly trying to delude himself into
belief that he is a freeborn man, and an
independent citizen.-M T. Graphic.